The Waves Never Stopped
by silentmusic16
Summary: "But the waves never stopped rolling onto the shore." An AU oneshot, complete.


**This is another one of those "four o'clock in the morning after music" oneshots, so it's probably a little weird. **

**Enjoy it anyway!**

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In my head I heard waves and although everything was dark, I felt at rest.

I had walked the boardwalk that entire time, up and down the mile-long wooden platform. It was a carnival of broken games, expensive shops, and filled to the brim with other people enjoying one of the best days of summer that year. Like the air, my mind felt warm and hazy, not bad but not really good. I felt almost lost, and being pushed around the crowd like I was nothing more than air didn't help. People passed, so many people, different and unique but utterly faceless in my view. No one was anyone. I was no one. We were all nothing.

My phone rang in my pocket and the text message I received said "come to bed, it's late". I had no idea what she was trying to say. How could it be late? It was barely 2 in the morning. It was barely even time to be awake. Like some sort of gleaming gem, the sun (or maybe the moon) shown and glittered off the surrounding world in patterns of light so bright I had to shield my eyes when I looked at them directly, even when they were dimmed by the wooden boards 'neath my feet.

Utterly devoid of any noise, the shops and games around me nestled themselves together and seemed to continue on and on and on forever in both directions. People, faceless people in beautiful clothes, formed centipede lines going as far back as I could see leading to each and every store and stand on the boardwalk. My stomach, rumbling like a sleeping lion, called out to me, but what could I do? The lines stretched on to infinity itself.

Hungry, but unwilling to stand in line, I traversed the boardwalk to the nearest ramp and into the soft, warm sand, loose and fine under my bare feet. Even longer than the boardwalk, the beach itself stretched out on both sides to, well, forever. People, a good number of them, dotted the sand, enjoying the orb in the deep-blue-rust-orange-maroon port wine sky. The water seemed black, maybe dark gray, and in it were individuals, faceless of course, all standing stock still and, with arms raised to the heavenly source of light, they looked like they were staring out into everybody who lived. Like they were staring into the history and the future of the world itself. One girl in particular, wearing a bikini and with her brown hair tied back except for a wavy curl going down her face, seemed to be grasping our cosmic lightbulb herself. Like she was the source of light in the world. Like she was our god. I walked into the water and tried to touch the space between her hands, but like dust she dispersed into thin air. Disappeared. A wishing flower blown into the wind. And the light still hung in the sky.

What was I searching for, again? I couldn't remember for the life of me. My footsteps in the sand went back to the boardwalk, now devoid of any life whatsoever, but the boardwalk itself was so much further away than it used to be. I took solace in the distance. I waded through the warm water, feeling at ease with everything I could imagine. Fish tickled my feet, the breeze settled in my salty sea hair, and all was well. Suddenly, needles of fire began spreading out across my body, to each and every inch of skin, to each and every nerve ending. What was happening? I collapsed onto my knees and held my head between my hands, but nothing felt right. I screamed, I screamed! Oh how the guttery cry from my throat echoed into the black depths of the ocean, but utterly failed to reach the shore. No help was coming, and I couldn't wait – I had to get out of the water. It had to be the water that was causing my pain.

I struggled towards the shore on all 4s, waves constantly battering my slow and pained body. Salty water like a poison flooded my mouth and nose, and blood dripped down into the churning waters. It was like the water wanted to claim me. But I wasn't going to let it. I wasn't going to let myself die. Despite the ocean distorting my eyes and choking me, I managed, somehow, to get to the edge of the shore. One of the faceless people on the beach pulled me up by my arms, with the shells of dead animals and the sand cutting small incisions into my back. after that he left, no words spoken between us. I lost him in the crowd.

My pain seemed to stop, suddenly once I was out of the water. No longer were my nerves assaulted by the puncture of a thousand burning needles. I was safe. Secure. Safe. Another text message from my dripping wet phone, which shouldn't have worked at the time. I checked it while feeling the warm breeze dry my bones. My skin lay next to me, or so I imagined, tanning. "Get up, it's too early now", said the text.

And then everything went black. Everything. An eclipse covered our light and I couldn't see. The faceless people disappeared. The shops, the boardwalk, the sand, it all disappeared as though it never actually was there in the first place. I grasped for something in the cold darkness and found no comfort, no help, no hope. There didn't even seem to be ground beneath my feet. Just…there was nothing besides darkness. It felt like I was floating in space, all alone.

Without warning, there was another blast of light all around and all encompassing. Like some sort of explosion of pure brightness, a glowing white. When everything cleared out, I was on my back, the sun setting into the blue ocean, pink cotton candy clouds drifting in long lines across the sky. It was all so beautiful. The sound of the waves, of the birds, of the people-with-faces around me felt natural. I was back. Was I back? Yes.

When I looked to the left, she was there, sitting cross-legged and looking at me with a rueful smile "Come on, sleepy. Time to leave". A skinny arm extended to help me up. And when I stood on the sand and looked behind me to the boardwalk, I could see reasonable lines. When I looked beyond that, I could see our car.

A deep breath and I looked towards the ocean. Not a soul was in there. And how I wished for the waves to stop, for just a moment, and the world could stand still in perfection.

But the waves never stopped rolling onto the shore.

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**This one is definitely more experimental than the other I uploaded today. But as always, criticism and reviews are appreciated. **


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